Published after we recorded – Why You Should Care About The Supreme Court Case On Toner Cartridges (From article – “you don’t “own” things like movies, music, or even the software on your phone; rather, it’s being licensed, which means companies can go to all kinds of lengths to keep controlling how, when, and where you use the things you’ve bought long after you’ve bought them.”)

Was just catching up and this episode made me think of an encounter I had over the weekend. My wife and I upgraded our phones and the next day I needed to bring back one of the accessories for an exchange. She gave me her phone and sent me to the store on my own. They associate at the store wouldn’t let me do the exchange because I wasn’t on the account…

But I had her device… and I knew her swipe code… (and a savvy thief could probably get that from the grease pattern). So I basically hacked her account in the store, in front of the sales guy who didn’t bat an eye at this, to make myself a manager (or whatever) on the account so he could do my business.

In short, it was scary how much power just having someone’s phone gives you over their information and accounts. Especially if they use most of the really common convenience features for their various accounts.

P.S. Rereading this made me sound like a jerk. To be clear my phone is on the same account and the bill is paid from our mutual bank account. So adding myself as a admin or what ever was less of a huge violation of privacy than it sounds like at face value.